Friday, November 7, 2014

UPDATE: November 27, 2014 Police completed digging up the concrete floor of the Cannington Barn where it was alleged three Aboriginal boys were buried. No bodies were found. A case of false memory? Perhaps we'll never know.

A month or so ago, a CBC documentary by television reporter Paul Hunter Cold Case: Murders of three aboriginal boys goes uninvestigated got me reflecting about the plight of indigenous peoples (called "First Nations") in Canada. The three boys are suspected to have been murdered in the 1960's in southern Ontario by a violent pedophile farmer, who then buried their bodies beneath the cement floor in his barn. The horrific act was witnessed by his young daughter (the victim of his rapes and physical abuse) who was warned that if she told anyone he would kill her. Haunted by the evil deed forever after, the daughter grew up and eventually went to police. The tale then takes some interesting twists and turns...you need to watch the video to understand. IMO, it is a window on how indigenous peoples are treated in Canada.

Reading this story got me to thinking about Severn and Jacob, the two aboriginal youths that I sketched in August of 1966. (see photos of sketches above and also on my Arts and Crafts page). In the summer of 1966, I attended a "Summer School for the Arts" at Elliot Lake in Northern Ontario. The boys were also attending the school. They had come down from the Great Slave region in the far north and this was their first trip to civilization. Most of the students in the program were aboriginal. I remember going to a few parties where I was the only Caucasian. I reveled in the company of the aboriginal students and was curious about their culture. Severn and Jacob told me the main thing they missed from their homes in the forests of the far north was "raw meat". They told me they loved to go hunting and eat the meat while it was still warm and raw. I was appalled and intrigued at the same time. As far as I can recall, the boys were good artists--with a natural ability in carving and design. I don't know what became of them after summer ended. Did they return up north? Or did they drift down to southern Ontario? I will never know.

Over the decades since the summer of 1966...I have crossed paths with First Nations people in my personal and professional life. Significantly, during my last 8 years as a child protection social worker, (now retired) I worked specifically in "Aboriginal Services". It has been the greatest honour in my life that my employer, the Government of British Columbia, trusted me (of non aboriginal heritage) with the privilege and responsibility of working with aboriginal Canadian families. I had to take special courses in cultural awareness/sensitivity to be allowed to do this social work. My primary teachers, however, were First Nations people themselves. I learned to understand that First Nations peoples are culturally different than white people. They have a more traditional, communal mindset and no matter how big or small their homes...extended families like to live together in the living room. Another thing I learned...Aboriginal people have a whole existence apart from white people. They are only truly themselves when they are with one another...they say things they would never say in front of white people. Once....when I was with two First Nations women they "forgot" I was there and started lambasting white people...it was a privilege to be able to hear them "being themselves"...and it was a sign that I had won their trust.

Anyone connected with First Nations peoples is struck by the profound generational negative effect that the residential school system has had on First Nations as a whole, from coast to coast. Right up until the 1980's, aboriginal children were taken from their families at a young age and sent off to residential schools in white communities. These schools were primarily run by religious groups. The children were routinely physically, sexually and emotionally abused. They lost their language and culture. Even more devastating, parents lost their ability to parent...while their children lost their understanding of family life and developed poor or non-existent parenting skills themselves...leading to generations of substance abuse/addiction, involvement with the criminal justice system and the social services systems. Residential schools were part of a strategic design by the Canadian government to destroy first nations' culture and absorb them into mainstream Canadian society. Canadians have since realized that it was like trying to put a square peg in a round hole. The social, financial and emotional toll on Canada has been incalculable.

The slow awakening of Canada to First Nations issues took a major leap forward in the early 1990's during the time of the "Meech Lake Accord" constitutional crisis. The neocon Conservative Party under Brian Mulroney tried to amend Canada's constitution, granting a special status to Quebec--"distinct society" (does this "exceptionalism" sound familiar? The United States is currently demanding "special status" as the "indispensable country" on the international scene). In any case, the Meech Lake Accord initiative went over like a lead balloon with Canadians. The Conservatives retained only two seats in Parliament in the election that took place immediately following the defeated Referendum on the amendment. The reason this episode gave aboriginal issues a much needed boost was an ancient piece of federal legislation called The Indian Act. In early Canada, the "Indians"as they were then referred to, were given unique constitutional status by way of The Indian Act. This Act is a major difference between how Canadian First Nations and American Indians are treated by their governments. While both First Nations and the rest of Canada (ROC) hate The Indian Act for very different reasons...First Nations at least felt, and the rest of Canada knew, that it gave them a de facto veto over the Meech Lake Accord. The aboriginal hero of this era was a member of the Manitoba provincial legislature (MLA) Elijah Harper:

Elijah Harper speaking in the Manitoba Legislature against the Meech Lake Accord

When the Constitutional Amendment failed in 1992, largely on the basis of rejection by Elijah Harper, speaking for Canada's First Nations...this sent a shock wave through the country. Suddenly, First Nations were no longer an ignored, taken for granted and disrespected element of the Canadian national identity. It has been a slow but steady progression since. First Nations have rebounded in their population demographics and in their contributions to the Canadian social and economic fabric. But it has not been without setbacks and challenges.

Here are some recent stories in Canadian papers concerning First Nations:

While Canadian First Nations communities do not like being lumped together--because they have significant cultural distinctions from one another, they have joined together in solidarity over common causes, both within Canada

"Ontario First Nations Chiefs say they are ready to die defending their lands".

What I would like to see happen in Canada as a next phase of First Nations' recovery from the devastation of colonialism...is adoption by Canada of first nations' indigenous traditional culture as our own official Canadian culture. I would like to see the First Nations' reliance on political consensus, communal living, reverence for the environment, respect for elders and spiritual healing recognized as the "official culture" of Canada. First Nations languages should be revived and words taken from them to be used in place of english where appropriate. First Nations history and culture should be mandatory subjects in school. If we lived by the tenets of the medicine wheel, rather than some of the divisive religious doctrines dragged over from Europe and currently holding sway in Canada, IMO, we would be much better off.

Finally, updating the story of the three youths who were murdered in southern Ontario and remain anonymous, there has recently been a healing ceremony on the site--and a renewed commitment to find out who these boys were, I don't think the government should rest until this has been accomplished.

"First Nations healing ceremony takes place near barn where teenaged boys were murdered":

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From the Crow's Nest

"What happened to Kennedy is nearly what happened to me. America is in danger of upheavals. But you'll see. All of them together will observe the law of silence. They will close ranks. They'll do everything to stifle the scandal. They will throw Noah's cloak over these shameful deeds. In order to not lose face in front of the whole world. In order to not risk unleashing riots in the United States. In order to preserve the union and to avoid a new civil war. In order to not ask themselves questions. They don't want to know. They don't want to find out. They won't allow themselves to find out."

~ French president after returning to Paris from JFK's funeral on November 24th, 1963

Charles de Gaulle

“If NWO agents cannot use reason to make a point, then they are right: I am their enemy.” Vladimir Putin

"For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed." JFK

Our rights will not fall due to limitations nor will they be abolished by unjust rule.

Ali Badwan re Palestine

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'.....the truth is that Western corporate so-called news media are simply this: one giant troll army marching in lockstep with the political agenda of Washington and its coterie of Western allies.' Finian Cunningham

The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.” – George Orwell

"Those who stand up for justice will always be on the right side of history." Copied from a protest sign seen at a demonstration in Palestine.

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"Authentic journalism is journalism that tells the people something the government doesn't want them to know." --Gary Webb (1955 – 2004)

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Anyone who relies on the Western media lives inside The Matrix. - Paul Craig Roberts

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Greencrow is an Internet identity and avatar I chose in 2003... when I first started going on news forums. I first used it on The New York Times forums (was kicked off that forum for insisting 9/11 was an inside job--since reinstated) but have used it on many other forums such as YouTube, CBC, Rabble.ca (kicked off that one) Rigorous Intuition (kicked off that one too) and a few more I can't think of at the moment. In any case, Blogs are supposed to be fun and I hope this one is for me and my readers. gc

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NOTE: While I recommend the blogs listed below, it doesn't mean I agree with everything in them...just that they get me thinking : )